Shamrock were most pundits pick to finish the Premier League in third place, and have performed according to the expectations, having finished third and therefore secured themselves European football next season.
The more optimistic among their fans were even hoping for a title push, but it almost immediately became clear that this would not be the case, as they lost six of their opening ten games and were therefore never nearly in a race with Cork, who won all ten of their opening games.
Things started to improve following the shaky start, but the Rovers were, to a bigger or lesser extent, rather inconsistent all season and recorded some surprising defeats at both ends of the season. They ended the season with thirteen defeats, with only the likes of Bohemians, Finn Harps and Drogheda having lost more games.
However, they also won more games than any side other than the top two, which is what allowed them to finish that high up the table, while they also had two quite decent cup runs, but were defeated by Dundalk both in the final of the League Cup and in the semi-final of the FAI Cup.
All in all, it was a decent enough season for the Rovers and Stephen Bradley will now want to find a way to further improve his side and get them to compete for the title last time around.
